Time Never Stops
by SabaceanBabe
Summary: 50 sentences about Helo written from 50 singleword prompts arranged in chronological order. Some are funny, some are sad, but all of them together tell the story of a good man.


**Title:** Time Never Stops

**Fandom:** Battlestar Galactica

**Character:** Lt. Karl "Helo" Agathon

**Theme set:** Gamma

**Disclaimer:** So very not mine and totally not making any profit. It's all quite sad, really.

**Rating:** PG-13

**Author's note:** Written for the Live Journal community 1character from 50 prompts. Although I thought it was pretty cool with just the random sentences, I liked it better when I put them into something that more closely approached chronological order, so here it is. And thank you so much to ysrith for the beta and reneedy for inspiration on a couple of the more difficult prompts.

-----------------------------------------

32. **Rice**

His mother started serving it as the main part of nearly every meal when Karl was six, the year his father left them, and Karl decided then that he would forever hate rice.

22. **Trouble**

One look at his mother's face and Karl knew he was in trouble for real, this time.

37. **Library**

Dejected and a little mutinous, he trudged to the library, hands tucked into the pockets of his jeans - no _way_ he wanted to work on a book report today of all days, but when his mom looked at him that way, he did as he was told.

30. **Crown**

Karl was crowned King of the Bacchanal his third year in high school; that same night he lost his crown to Nick Jackson and his virginity to Phoebe Soulas.

36. **Cherry**

His first car was a cherry red Vortex and that baby went so fast it felt like she took to the air even as she hugged the road.

50. **Finale**

The curtain came down to thundering applause as the finale came to an end and Karl thought, squeezing the hand of the girl beside him on the stage, _Thank the Gods that's over with._

33. **Worn**

He made his way up the worn steps of the Academy, gawking like a tourist at the entrance to the place that would be his home for the next few years - provided he didn't frak up _too_ badly.

16. **Ash**

The words - _from ash we are formed and to ash we will return_ - pounded into Karl as he said his final goodbye to the woman who had given him life.

42. **Bell**

The temple bell pealed out, calling the faithful, but Karl ignored it and chucked more rocks into the pond, one after another - he'd never been much for prayer anyway and it seemed even more pointless since the Gods had taken his mother.

19. **Nail**

Karl grinned around a green apple lollipop - he knew it in his bones that he was going to nail that exam in the morning.

1. **Snow**

He pinned her against a tree, the remaining snow from her missile blazing an icy trail inside his sweater, and kissed her breathless.

23. **Little**

It was such a little thing, really, earning a call sign, so why couldn't he stop grinning?

14. **Buttons**

Kara giggled - _giggled!_ - when he couldn't quite work the buttons of her sweater, so instead he just pulled the damn thing over her head.

15. **Closet**

A choked-off moan drifted from the closet and Helo, mischievous grin on his face and one hand on the latch, motioned for Starbuck to join him.

21. **Backwards**

Walking backwards, laughing at something Kara had just said, he didn't see the new Raptor pilot until he nearly knocked her off her feet.

20. **Prey**

Leaning on the far end of the bar, he spotted his prey and, slipping his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket, Helo swooped in for the kill.

45. **Electricity**

Like a bolt of lightning, electricity shot through him as Sam Anders scored the final goal of the game and the next thing he knew, there was a beautiful blond in his arms, shouting, "We won!"

40. **Fold**

For the third time that evening, Helo laid down his cards and announced, "I fold," but then, seeing the look on his best friend's face, he added, "Shut up, Starbuck."

38. **Win**

_Whoever the asshole was who said it doesn't matter if you win or lose never met Kara Thrace_, Helo thought sourly as he handed over nearly a week's wages to the crowing Viper jock.

11. **Pearl**

He wove the string of pearls between his fingers and wondered for a second what they'd look like against Boomer's skin, but then he pushed both the thought and the bauble away - she wasn't his and never would be.

44. **Contact**

Helo couldn't accept what his dradis showed - multiple instances of Cylon contact, hundreds of Raiders surrounding the squadron, and every last Viper was dead in space.

28. **Last**

The last of the refugees boarded Boomer's bird as Helo watched and he turned toward the still-angry crowd, turned his back on the Raptor and on her, knowing that if he continued to look at her he wouldn't be able to hold it together in the face of the realization that he would probably die here.

49. **Mechanism**

The firing mechanism in Helo's service pistol jammed and he thought this time, he was dead for sure.

46. **Milk**

He said to Boomer with a wink and a grin, "These cookies may be stale as hell, but if I had a glass of cold milk to go with 'em, I'd die a happy man."

47. **Wild**

The wind was wild and the rain came down in buckets, but Helo didn't care because all he could think of was the woman in his arms, this woman he'd never dreamed could be his.

8. **Star**

He leaned back against the damp bark of a fallen tree, pulled Sharon against his chest and asked, "You ever wish on a star?"

6. **Grim**

With grim determination, Helo shot her, even as a small voice in the back of his mind screamed out, "NO!"

31. **Time**

Time stood still has he stared at the Cylon - _Sharon! _- bleeding on the steps of the museum.

10. **Bandage**

The bandage slipped as Helo tried to tighten it with shaking fingers and so he tried again and all the while he felt her dark eyes on him, but he couldn't meet her gaze.

43. **Sleep**

Gods, how he wanted to sleep, just sleep and never wake up again, but instead, as the rain pounded down on him, on her, he jabbed the needle into his neck and tried to hold his gun steady as he watched her shiver.

18. **Staircase**

Coated with the dirt of the last two days, her arm in a sling and her back stiff with anger, Sharon moved with grace and dignity up what was left of the museum staircase and Helo had no choice but to follow.

3. **Brick**

Helo took one cautious step forward and then another, toward the sounds of the ongoing battle, but then his foot struck a brick, sent it clattering through the hole in the museum floor and he cringed, cursing himself for an idiot even as he continued on.

9. **Possession**

Once upon a time, Karl Agathon thought he knew the meaning of the word "possession," but that was before the Cylons came, before Sharon Valerii.

34. **Paint**

Everywhere Helo turned, there were bright and dark splashes of color that formed a kind of magic and a bit of chaos, all at once, and he turned to her and asked, "Did you paint this, Kara?"

41. **Music**

Helo sits in a chair in Kara's apartment and breathes in the scent of her cigar and he can almost forget that the world has ended as the music swirls around them.

48. **Expectation**

His expectation for their return to civilization was never _this_, that after all Sharon had done for him and for Kara, against her own kind, that some woman he had never even heard of would order her thrown out an airlock.

12. **Glass**

Fingers curl around wire mesh and knuckles brush against cold glass and he can't stop the hunger within him to touch her soft skin just one more time.

35. **Ache**

Karl let his eyes wander from photograph to note, from icon to candle, from one pleading query to the next, and felt an ache in his chest that would never go away.

29. **Scab**

He visited Sharon every chance he got, but every time, seeing her in that cage was like a scab torn from a half-healed wound.

25. **Circle**

His circle of friends before the attacks wasn't all that large, but after he returned to the living, it was almost nonexistent.

4. **Judgment**

The fanatical look in Cain's eyes as she pronounced judgment on him, as she said the words that would take away his life, chilled Helo to his soul.

27. **Freedom**

Freedom had always been just a word, until it was taken from him.

17. **Definition**

Karl was almost mesmerized by the way Kara moved, the definition of her muscles beneath sweat-slick skin as she slammed her fists again and again into the pads he held.

2. **Child**

When Karl was very small, his mother had told him that there was nothing in life that hurt quite so much as to lose a child; now he understood.

39. **Loss**

He thought he knew loss when his mother died, when the Colonies died, when he learned that Sharon was a Cylon, but that was nothing compared to what he feels now, releasing the ashes of his daughter into cold space.

7. **Trap**

His mind cried out that it was a trap, but instinct drowned out irrational fear and he called, "Is there a Sam Anders there?"

24. **Collar**

Karl tugged at his collar - _too frakkin' tight_ - but putting on his dress grays for Kara's wedding was the least he could do to show his respect for both her and for Sam.

13. **Classified**

He took a drink of water from his glass and shuffled through the folders on his desk, still not used to the fact that his new position not only entitled him to look at classified files, but actually required that he do so.

5. **Powder**

Powdery dust blew into his eyes, coating his vision with a dull gray film, but he kept his eyes trained on his target, ready to pull the trigger as soon as Anders gave the signal.

26. **Hands**

Karl watched her hands as they caressed his skin, traced a path down his chest and his abdomen, and his breath caught in his throat when one slender hand slipped inside his waistband.

fin


End file.
